Archive for the 'TEOTWAWKI' Category

I guess I am going to start blogging about making preparations for TEOTWAWKI. Its important to me at this point and I now that I am working on this I am truly worried about getting prepped. Living in the northwest there are numerous catastrophes that could befall us here, including floods, snow storms, earthquakes, and lahars or even volcanic eruptions. Not to mention all of the potential human caused problems.

It is my hope that these posts will inspire others to begin storing up food for their own families so as to minimize the effects of any disruption to life from any of the above, or whatever local conditions might throw at you.

This is in addition to approx 13lbs of canned meats (chicken, ham, salmon and tuna), one bottle of oil, and about 20 lbs of various dried beans and peas and 10lbs of rice. I’d say this puts me at about 90lbs of food specifically for storage. Obviously the beans, peas and rice expand tremendously in weight and volume but its not much right now. I have a VERY long way to go. It seems that the more I purchase the more I realize just how far I have to go. That, of course, is not a reason to stall or put it off. I’d say that if I did nothing more but store water I’d easily ride out a couple week long disruption.

And speaking of water, I really need to find a good way to store it. Preferably cheaply. I have found a nearby company called EarthWaveLiving.com that sells storage containers for what are probably a good price? I think though, that it would be best to find someone local to you as the shipping costs are (justifiably) high. Picking it up yourself would save a ton. Of course, always check Craigslist.

Of late I have been more and more concerned about having put some food aside for hard times. It seems that those hard times are just about upon us, so instead of just being concerned about it I am actually doing something and putting food aside. In order to assist others, I am posting from an LDS manual on preparedness that I found from Desert Cat. (READ the two pages DC has there) If you ignore the LDS scriptures its a great manual as it covers just about everything you could think of with regards to food storage. You can download the PDF here. I suggest printing it out at your local Kinko’s (or whatever you have near you) because when TSHTF you might not be able to go online to get it.

The guide is intended to get you prepared within 1 year yet only spend $40-$50 a week. Their intention is to have you spread out the purchases so that you have a variety of foods so that if only 2 months in to your preparing TEOTWAWKI occurs, you will have some foods to eat rather than maybe 500 lbs of wheat and nothing else. While it isn’t stated specifically, it appears that the below list would be for two people. Also, from my perspective, it focuses rather heavily on having wheat. I cannot eat gluten so I will obviously be substituting that for other things such as rice, beans and corn. Also, I see no mention of meats in this list. Not sure that I can go without meat, even if it is canned, so I am purchasing a variety of those as well.

February
Week #1
Water Storage Containers – buy either 55 gallon drums, 5 gallon water containers (available at all emergency preparedness stores and some super markets) and spigot, or start to save water in pop bottles and plastic juice containers. Also purchase 100 lbs. hard white wheat and three plastic storage buckets with tight fitting lids. Check out the local mills in your area for best prices.
Week #2 25 lbs of sugar or 20 lbs of honey
5 lbs salt per person
bucket opener
Week #3
4 #10 cans shortening or 4 – 48 oz bottles oil
2 #10 cans of dry instant milk
Week #4
2 case canned beans (like re-fried pinto, black, kidney, white, pink etc.) or
25 lbs dry beans (preferable) and bucket to store them in.
50 lbs dried corn or popcorn (about $10.00 from a mill or food storage company) and a bucket to store it in.
(Can be ground into cornmeal as well as for popcorn.)

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March
(please note that many of these items are repeats because we want to be SURE you have enough of the essentials!)
Week #1 Enough water containers for 14 gallons per person in the family.
(This was mentioned last month-but we want to be sure you have this)
(Water is your most important item!<)
If you didn’t get enough containers last month, you can get them this month.
White Rice, at least 15 pounds per person in the family and if possible buckets to store it.
(Brown Rice goes rancid faster.)
Week #2 2 jars mayonnaise
1 gallon oil
2 tubs shortening
Week #3 25 pounds sugar
1- 25 pound bag of legumes (pinto, lentils, white, pink etc.)
Week #4 Salt 5 more lbs
2 bottles of bleach
1 #10 can or 1 box of dry milk.
Week #5 Check your list for the last 8 weeks and purchase any items you fell short on.
These items are essential ones and you will need to be sure you have enough.

June
Week #1 2 cans dry milk, 2 boxes of Rennet
(used for making cottage cheese and other dairy products from dry milk.)
1 bottle lemon juice,
1 bottle vinegar. (also used in making dairy products from dry milk
Week #2 100 lbs wheat
25 lbs. white fl our
Week #3 Baking soda (try to buy in bulk in places like Sam’s Club or Costco) Buy about 10 lbs.
25 lbs. or legumes (choose those you are willing to eat.
Remember you can sprout legumes and almost quadruple the nutritional value of them.
Buy one large box Knox or other gelatin to be used in place of eggs in baking.
Week #4 Tomato products (try to buy them by the case in normal size cans. Spaghetti sauce, tomato
sauce, and whole and chopped tomatoes. Buy a combination of flavored and not flavored tomatoes.
Buy paste if you can get a good deal on it. It is less expensive to add water to paste to make sauce
than it is just to buy sauce sometimes. Buy three cases if possible.)
Week #5 Be on the look out for garden seeds that are NON- Hybrid.
That way you can use the seeds from the plants you grow to grow a garden the next season.
A good price for them is about $18-20 per can with about 10 varieties per can.